Rick doesn't know it, but all of his videos for a while know are talking about the social and mental degeneration that the fiat system causes on the younger generations, especially.
Discussion
*now
Interesting video. Things have definitely changed. With Spotify I can seek out really specific niches — like for example, synth pop with female vocals, and it’ll play me a bunch of songs of that sort. But I couldn’t tell you one of the singers’ names if my life depended on it. Whereas back in the 1980’s I might search out an album by a specific band like The Smiths. That just doesn’t happen anymore.
Rick has this concept, "low information music", which makes so much sense it's scary even.
He has discussed this factual statistic that the last time a #1 chart hit (in the US) had a change of key was... in 2009. (But incidentally a couple of videos ago he found out that there is ONE song right now in the charts that has it. First one since 2009 anyway)...
In terms of information content, popular music has degenerated orders of magnitude in the last couple of decades, coinciding with the decline of rock music and its almost complete replacement with hip-hop derivatives.
Because music isn't scarce anymore (for a long time). Before the internet, almost any good music was a treasure and if it was difficult to listen to at first, I got it on repeat. And since it was scarce, I'd listen to the same stuff again and again, because there was nothing else to listen to. So the music stuck and the names did too.
Now you can listen to an endless stream and never hear the same songs more than once.
Check out my other comment. It's also that older music was a lot more information-rich, i.e., your brain was processing a lot more stuff, so it was more simulated by it. Music right now is the equivalent of junk food for your brain.
I read that. Depends on what music. The complexity in the music is a complex thing :). In terms of the melodies, harmonies and how they evolve, a lot of the pop got super lobotomized as the laptops became the main instruments. But at the same time, a lot of it is heavy on sound design and creating a "vibe".
Also complexity doesn't equal good music. A lot of great music is (deceptivly) simple.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzIZPZN5K60
Yes, one can argue this Arvo Part piece is not exactly information-poor, but in music, simple is often a good thing that a few can pull off well.
You said it yourself: simple doesn't mean information-poor.
"Good" or "bad" are not the matter here, that's just taste. I can dislike very information-rich music, and it would still be a fact that it is information-rich and that listening to it doesn't have the same effect on people's brains than listening to an information-poor piece of music that's widely liked.